The "What Seems to Be in Store for Season 43" Thread

It wasn't officially scrapped; we just don't know what happened to it. It not testing will and being unusable is a theory. Though, with all the effort and time they put into the new bits, I don't think they can afford to throw away any bits. That Katy Perry bit must have set them back quite a lot. Even ad revenue from YouTube would've been good for them.

Yeah. It could also be a case of withholding something for the next season. Like that Cookie song we saw the taping footage of. We won't know if it was scrapped until we get word that it was or until the last episode of the season.

It still could and should have been internet exclusive if they couldn't fit it on the show. There's a good chance that they just didn't put it on the last season, and are waiting, otherwise it would have popped up online by now. It would suck for Tau if they didn't run it even as a viral video, and Kevin would stand to look bad if he couldn't use his pull to get the segment on the show. The dude pretty much does everything on the show now, I'm sure they'd let him speak for that segments behalf.

Alright, I visited the set to visit Caroll one day (and I think I mentioned this in a thread about season 42 because I didn't know which season it would be in) but there is an episode about Big Bird and Snuffy playing the Letter of the Day Game. They are given clues, including a talking box, ball of wax, a fox, and Leela dressed as a T-Rex (God Bless Nitya Vidyasagar who always makes performance enjoyable-- she's quickly climbing up my favorite human cast member list simply because she's enjoyable to watch and an extremely nice lady to talk to in person). It's a very well written episode and a great thing to watch being filmed! One thing I learned from being on the set that day.... I had no idea BB's tail was removeable

I think they take the song a little more seriously this time with the edge they've given it.

I would like to point out that a new international mini-series has a bunch of new Ernie and Bert sketches (like this one), among other neat new bits. I'm hoping they air some on the show, because the show was made for Spain, but clearly recorded in English and dubbed over.

EDIT: Watching the video again, I think the image of spinning pizza dough over the line "spin" is literal to the extreme.

I really hope we have more Ernie and Bert this season. it was great to see them in a street story, but there weren't too many interspersed segments... old or new. And I hope there's more Cookie too. I don't want to see him reduced to overused Sesame English cartoons. He's MASSIVELY popular as a character. Tough Pigs has an insightful article about it.

I agree. Grover's FINALLY getting his due again. I'd say it's time for more characters in puppet form in general, and enough of these animated/CGI gimmicks. More Ernie & Bert, Cookie Monster, Oscar and Big Bird. No one can not deny that the latter 3 at least seem to have taken a back seat to the newer characters in recent seasons.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the problem I see with why characters like Cookie and E&B aren't being used enough is because there's just not enough time in the show. The four "blocks" take up the majority of the our, leaving little room for anything else. And most of the time, the pre-EW segment is usually a spoof or celebrity bit. The celebrity Word of the Day bits are all mostly Elmo and Abby, but I can understand the reason why.

I wonder if Muppeteers working on various projects at the same time is the problem. If Steve was too busy with Muppets stuff to keep going back and forth to tape new E&B segments. If something's up with Dave's ability to be Cookie Monster or something.

I don't know if that's the problem or not. It would at least explain why they had diminished roles in the street stories the last 2 seasons.

Still, we need MORE inserts that aren't parodies, aren't live action songs about something (hence my comment about Count me In), and stuff that isn't Elmo and celebrity. Even if they're old ones.

We've come a long way from the Elmo Only era... we shouldn't have to turn back.

I don't have a problem with live-action bits; I DO have a problem when I'm expecting some Muppet material and get one instead. They can be good sometimes (that remake of "Somebody Come and Play" was a pleasant surprise). I think we need more bits like "Change the World" though.

Plaza Sesamo was horrible with films, they'd have like a million per episode and the only Muppet bit would usually be one of the Count's # of the day bits. (The show now has more letter/number bits and less misc. bits)

Exactly my problem. I hate how Muppet sketches have to fight for room with live action films/song inserts because of the format they have. I know the block format gave them high ratings and all, but the aesthetic of it isn't appealing. Just for the fact that more time in the show is spent on endless reruns of longer segments they only have 8 episodes of a season than a library of 10 years at least of footage at a time.

New Ernie and Bert, Old Ernie and Bert... doesn't matter. We need one Muppet segment not tied into the story, Abby's School, Super Grover 2.0, Elmo's World and whatever else they under ordered.